Chapter 14 CIVIL LIBERTIES AND CIVIL RIGHTS: Where Liberty and Equality Collide American Political...

© 2011 Taylor & Francis

Chapter 14

CIVIL LIBERTIES AND CIVIL RIGHTS: Where Liberty and Equality Collide

American Political Development/Historical Focus: The Women’s Rights Movement


The Impetus for Political Equality (1848-1899)• In July 1848, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady

Stanton organized the convention in Seneca Falls, NY, publicly adopting a statement calling for women’s suffrage.

• 240 people attended, including 40 men; the first man to speak in favor of women’s suffrage, was the abolitionist, Frederick Douglas.

• The convention produced the first written document, The Seneca Falls Declaration, publicly stating in language similar to the Declaration of Independence the reforms needed to provide political, economic, and social equity to women.


The Impetus for Political Equality (1848-1899)• Initially, abolitionists, including Susan B. Anthony,

a Quaker from Rochester, NY, and Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Movement that advocated a broad equal rights platform

• Lucy Stone (who incidentally kept her maiden name after marriage) created the American Woman Suffrage Association dedicated to extending suffrage to women


The Impetus for Political Equality (1848-1899) cont.

• Yet, many in the suffrage movement, including Stanton and Anthony, were against extending suffrage to slaves.

• The two groups merged in 1890 to form the American Woman Suffrage Association concentrating their efforts on gaining women the right to vote.


Early Suffragist Activities

• In the 1872 presidential election, hundreds of suffragists went to vote for Ulysses S. Grant and other Republican candidates.

• Susan B. Anthony was found guilty of voting and fined $100.

• In 1873, the Supreme Court ruled that only individual states could allow women to vote per Article I, section 4, of the U.S. Constitution.

• In 1890, the admission of Wyoming into the Union created the first state allowing women the right to vote.



• In 1893, Carrie Catt was dispatched by Anthony and Stanton to Denver, Colorado, to help promote women’s suffrage. Catt had addressed Congress in 1892 promoting women’s political equality.

• A third group, The Women’s Christian Temperance Union, joined suffragists and abolitionists to push for political equality.

• By 1896, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah extend voting to women.



• In Boston, MA, anti-suffragists organizations, known as Beacon Hill societies form to counter the influence of suffragists: Why?

• This would be detrimental to women because they would become “crooked and distrustful” like men.

• As a result of these organizations, referenda advocating political equality were defeated throughout Massachusetts.


The Suffragist Movement Goes National (1900-1917)• In 1896, the women’s rights movement gained

another ally, the National Association of Colored Women, with its charismatic leader, Mary Church Terrel.

• As a result of the large number of immigrant workers pouring into the Northeast during the turn of the twentieth century, Harriet Blache, the daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, began to bring in women from trade unions to support women’s suffrage.


The Suffragist Movement Goes National (1900-1917)• The suffragists were fractured with some

opposing political equality for blacks and immigrants while also split as to what strategies should be incorporated to achieve equality.

• With the advent of the Progressive Party in the U.S., the International Workers’ Movement, and the equal rights marches in London, suffragists began to stage “open air speeches” and organize public demonstrations and parades in New York promoting political equality for women.


The Suffragist Movement Goes National (1900-1917)• In 1912, the Suffragist Movement begins to gain

momentum.• Suffragists Alice Paul (who earned a Ph.D. in

English) and Lucy Burns organize a demonstration outside the White House before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration as President in 1913.

• 8,000 demonstrators descend on Washington, DC• National recognition of the Suffragist Movement is

illustrated by the introduction of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment calling for an amendment to be added to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote.


The Suffragist Movement Goes National (1900-1917)• The labor movement joins the suffragists in a

national push for women’s equality by actively campaigning against Democratic candidates in 9 Western states.

• In 1915, Washington, California, Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon join four other states permitting women the right to vote (referendum defeated in New York state).


The Suffragist Movement Goes National (1900-1917)• In 1916, Jeannette Rankin is the first woman

elected to Congress representing the state of Montana.

• As the President of the NAWSA, Carrie Chapman Catt hires Maude Hill Park who begins lobbying members of Congress to support the Anthony Amendment.


Southern Opposition

• However, Congressional members from Southern states are adamant in opposing the amendment.

• Scared that blacks would gain too much power.• Challenged the traditional notion of the family structure.


A Protest Strategy

• In 1917, Alice Paul who is the leader of the suffragist organization, the National Women’s Party, begins to stage daily protests and pickets the White House.

• Public discontent rises as daily protests occur.• This strategy is impeding the incremental strategy of

Catt and Park.• Violent clashes erupt and 168 protesters are jailed.• Public opinion is swayed by the abusive treatment of

the protesters by the Washington, DC, police and the subsequent imprisonment of some suffragists.


Political Equality: The 19th Amendment• In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson

realizes the women’s vote is politically beneficial as several Democratic candidates are defeated in Western states that allow women to vote.

• After two unsuccessful bids to pass a suffragist referendum in New York, the state assembly agrees to the referendum in 1918.


Political Equality: The 19th Amendment• Politically equality for women is now being

debated in every state.• In 1918, Jeannette Rankin, as a member of

the House of Representatives, speaks on the floor supporting the Anthony Amendment and calls Woodrow Wilson “a Kaiser” referencing Kaiser Wilhelm who is now a declared enemy of the United States.


The Amendment Process

• The House passes the Anthony Amendment by 1 vote in 1918 as Southern Democrats were allowed to attach a rider to the legislation permitting states to bar women from voting in the next general election based upon state voting registration guidelines.

• On June 4, 1919, the amendment passes the Senate by 1 vote.

• The Anthony Amendment now must be ratified by two-thirds of the state legislatures (36 states) per Article V of the U.S. Constitution.


The Amendment Process

• As a result of Delaware rejecting the amendment, Tennessee becomes the battleground state.

• In the Tennessee legislature, first-term Republican, Harry Burns, changes his vote to support the amendment because he receives a note from his mother asking him to.

• The 19th Amendment providing women the right to vote is ratified on August 26, 1920


Conclusion

• While the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, it by no means indicated women became active in politics.

• Empirical evidence that women’s participation declined throughout the 1920s and early 1930s in many states (Kristi Andersen, After Suffrage).

• Furthermore, Mississippi and Georgia do not allow women to vote in the proceeding November elections.

• Political change does not equate to social change.


Conclusion• The decline of the Progressive Movement led to

less national attention for women’s issues.• Nevertheless, the Democratic Party began to gain

the support of women by supporting the 19th Amendment.

• National leaders hoped women would support the League of Nations.

• Sponsor women as political candidates in Western and Midwestern states.

• Southern Democrats remained hostile to women’s equality.• Carrie Chapman Catt founded the League of

Women’s Voters (originating from the NAWSA) and continued to work to further women’s rights until her death in 1947.

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